Microchip manufacturing: How Nordson is innovating the driver of our world economy
Semiconductors are the foundation of our modern world. These tiny microchips are built specifically to process information (logic chips) or store large amounts of information (memory chips), making them an essential part of our everyday electronic devices. As we become more connected as a society, microchips are enabling everything from the most powerful super computers to cars and to the ubiquitous coffee makers – essential technologies within our personal and professional lives, and Nordson, a global leader in precision dispensing, fluid management and related technologies, is at the heart of that production and accelerated growth.
Industry overview:
It comes as no surprise that over the past two decades the semiconductor industry has experienced rapid growth. The first increase in production happened in the 1980’s when personal computers became more affordable. Today, our reliance on mobile devices, electric vehicles and cloud computing continues to fuel industry growth. Global consulting expert Deloitte forecasts semiconductor manufacturing will growth another 10 percent to more than $600 billion in 2022. By 2030, the global semiconductor industry is poised to become a trillion-dollar industry* (according to McKinsey) due to the increase in smart devices, Artificial Intelligence (AI), quantum computing and advanced wireless networks (5G).
For over 15 years, Nordson has contributed to high quality manufacturing of semiconductors via a process centered around the multi-layer interconnects within the wafers from which microchips are produced. These processes are comprised of front-end and back-end processes. Front-end processes are where a blank wafer undergoes hundreds of processing steps to fabricate microchips, called die, on the wafer. Nordson plays a role within the front-end finishing. An interconnect makes up the intricate wiring that connects the billions of individual components (transistors, capacitors, etc.) that can be on a chip. As smaller and smaller components are packed closer together, more interconnect levels are needed, and this connecting becomes increasingly challenging.
Nordson’s advanced packaging solutions help ensure optimal power, performance, area and cost (PPAC). Our leading products for semiconductor applications include:
- ASYMTEK fluid dispensing products for advanced semiconductor packaging, providing adhesion, structural integrity, thermal conductivity for advanced substrate and wafer packaging.
- MARCH plasma equipment, which removes contaminants and activates surfaces for improved bonding, increased wettability and lubricity. This includes high-throughput plasma processing for wafer-level packaging enhancing the yield, reliability and performance of the integrated circuit.
“Until recently, semiconductor packaging was seen as a low value activity. Today, we are going through an exciting time, and the advanced package engineering is adding significant value to the final product because incorporating the right solutions and technologies within packaging helps to increase performance, reduce power consumption and area – which are all critical metrics for our mobile society,” Brian Chung said.
Nordson’s Test & Inspection solutions provide state-of-the-art X-ray, acoustic and optical inspection systems for fast and accurate inspections of the wafers, dies and packaged chips. Our leading solutions include:
- Sonoscan is the leading developer and manufacturer of acoustic microscopes, sophisticated acoustic micro-imaging system used to analyze defects in semiconductors.
- DAGE is the market-leading provider of award-winning Bondtester and X-ray Inspection systems for destructive and non-destructive testing, inspection, and quality control of electronic components.
- YESTECH is a global leader in automated optical inspection systems that bring powerful, cost-effective yield enhancement solutions.
“It’s an exciting time to invest in the semiconductor industry. If you think about industry innovation, there’s always a challenge to decrease transistor size and increase processing speed. Physics plays a significant role here, which provides a huge opportunity for Nordson with heterogenous packaging and 2D and 3D package stacking,” said Brad Perkins, Product Line Director.
Additionally, Nordson’s acquisition of CyberOptics, will further expand our Test and Inspection capabilities to bring new differentiated solutions to our semiconductor and electronics customers.
“With this acquisition, we have the opportunity to organically move into the front-end semiconductor manufacturing processes using CyberOptics’ technology to inspect wafers using optical, x-ray and ultrasonic technologies and complement our existing YESTECH product line for optical technology inspection,” Brad said. “This acquisition is very exciting – the explosion of growth happening in the industry will further drive success for Nordson, our shareholders and employees.”
Nordson’s diversified portfolio, and expanded investment in semiconductor manufacturing processes, bolsters our business in an industry that is, and will continue, to drive our world economy.
“We’re selling reliability from all angles to our customers,” said Jeanine Norlin, Senior Marketing Manager, Nordson Electronics Solutions. “The Nordson brand has a well-known reputation for providing solutions that are reliable. And for semiconductor industry customers specifically, our electronics solutions and test and inspection products play a critical role in ensuring the reliability of their manufacturing processes and minimizing yield losses. So much so that we have become the preferred partner for their most important end devices.”